README for the awe packages

1. Separate packages

The debianized awe driver consists of several separate packages:-

awe-drvThe sources for the AWE32 driver which these utilities were
built with. This is more up-to-date than in any current
kernel as of writing - it is recommended that you use these
sources, and no guarantees that the utilities are made with
other versions. This package also includes the awe driver
utilities.

awe-midiThe MIDI player, found as awemidi originally.

awe-netscape-libc5
awe-netscape-libc6
The Netscape plugin to support the AWE32 MIDI player.

vkeybdThe AWE virtual keyboard program

libawe0.4The AWElib patch-handling library
libawe0.4-devDevelopment files for AWElib

2. Packages supporting the AWE driver

Here is a current list (as of Wed Jun 25 12:21:16 BST 1997) of programs
known to support the AWE32 driver:-

awe-*
xmp
gmod (with a tiny patch)
playmidi (version 2.5, currently in BETA)

The debian package of xmp currently supports the AWE32 driver. I have also
e-mailed a (3-line) patch to the gmod maintainer to add AWE32 support to
gmod. NB that the latest AWE driver will support also any application which
can write to an "external MIDI" source (most programs, including playmidi,
etc.), although the quality of this output isn't quite as good as that from
programs with dedicated AWE support, eg awe-midi.

3. Note about making packages support the AWE32 driver

If you make packages which support the AWE32 driver directly, you should build
it with "-I/usr/src/awedrv". Note that support for the AWE32 driver in its
GUS emulation mode should be done by adding a line somewhere at the top:-

#define SAMPLE_TYPE_AWE32 0x20

This is also defined in awe_voice.h, but this way, you do not need to include
awe_voice.h, and therefore do not depend on the AWE driver being installed.
Then, later, you change the check of the synth type from something like this:-

if (info.synth_type == SYNTH_TYPE_SAMPLE && info.synth_subtype ==
SAMPLE_TYPE_GUS)

to

if (info.synth_type == SYNTH_TYPE_SAMPLE && (info.synth_subtype ==
SAMPLE_TYPE_GUS || info.synth_subtype == SAMPLE_TYPE_AWE32))

(This is from the AWE32 driver FAQ). You should try and do this for all
programs which support the GUS driver.

--  
Tom Lees <tom@lpsg.demon.co.uk>, maintainer